Against all odds, Jewish food is having a moment right now. Smoked meats and chopped liver, for years only deemed appropriate for dingy delis, are being gussied up and repackaged as hip. Perhaps it was inevitable—every other iteration of comfort food has gone upscale (truffled mac and cheese, anyone?), and Jewish food, last of the unsexy holdouts, is ripe for a makeover. more ›

Spike Lee is a difficult guy to like. If he's not whining about Tyler Perry making movies that Lee doesn't approve of, he's preaching the word of Brooklyn while simultaneously screwing the hood. And if he's not doing either of those, he's typically just acting like an all around jerk. So it should come as little surprise that during a discussion with Charlie Rose at a marketing conference, he was as grumpy as ever! more ›

This year we talked to a lot of people, and here are a few our favorite interviewss — click through to revisit our talks with people like Rachel Maddow, Pat Kiernan, Zooey Deschanel, Joan Baez, and many many more. If you think there's a New Yorker we should talk to in 2010... let us know! more ›

This year we interviewed just under 300 people. From die hard New Yorkers to those just passing through our fair city, here are some our faves. And if you really wanna get reflective, here's our best of interview post from 2007. more ›

The AP notes how CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric has been hitting a new high note in her career with her series of interviews with vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and is finally getting respect. (It's better than rumors that she's moving on). Couric, though, says, “I’ve never really lost confidence in my abilities, which I guess is pretty miraculous. I didn’t really have a lot of platforms to do what I excel at, which is talk to people and do interviews.” more ›

The police, already fearing retaliatory violence, say the youths were exchanging gang signs, wearing T-shirts with a gang name and bounding atop cars when they were arrested. Parents and teachers of the group and witnesses said that they were no more boisterous than any group of teenagers would be in similar circumstances, and that they did not see any youths atop cars. more ›

Swanson: Law & Order called my agent and said that they're doing the Anna Nicole Smith story. They knew I had just given birth a month before and asked, "How does she feel and how does she look?" My agent said, "Well, she's a little heavy, because she just had a baby," and they told him it would work for the story, because the character just had a baby, so she's up a few pounds, too. [Laughs] So after much discussion with [boyfriend] Lloyd, I decided to do the show... more ›

EVENT: Bluestockings is a great little place on Allen St, if you haven't already checked it out. Tonight the UnCoolKids tell us this bookstore (and more) is having an event called "Where Have You Been? Conversations on Travel": more ›

A look at some noteworthy televison shows this week: more ›

If you count yourself as a New Yorker and a movie lover, it's tough to not have a special affinity for films by Woody Allen. Practically the filmmaker laureate of the city, Allen's prolific 40 plus year career is getting a three week long screening series at Film Forum starting this Friday. Gothamist loves Allen's movies (both the highs and the lows) so much that we thought we'd chat with an Allen expert, Queens College professor Bob Kapsis, about how to plan our screening calendar during "Essentially Woody." more ›

, showing that they truly believe in protecting Piazza, even now that's he's a Padre. more ›

New York magazine brings the funny this week with a cover story about Conan O'Brien as well as some other NYC-comedy features. The Conan story delves into his "unsuave" persona and the possibilities of bringing his style to the rest of America when he takes over the Tonight Show (he says, "I’m open to going to L.A. Mostly because it won’t be my choice."). Gothamist highly recommends you read it, but we have pulled out his thought about the city:

"New York is a social experiment—the results aren’t in yet, it may not have worked, they took way too many people with a large disparity of wealth, stacked them on top of each other, and sprinkled bagels over the whole thing. Contrast breeds comedy, and the more extreme the contrast, the better the comedy."

The Conversation is also the lesser-lauded but truly incredible Francis Ford Coppola film starring Gene Hackman. Gothamist will be watching the Golden Globes (and some pre-show as well - we're only human and we will be seething at both the Rivers sideshow and Star Jones Reynolds...as for the telecast, expect some tsunami shout-outs), and then blogging into the wee hours with a wrap-up post. [Gothamist on the nominations and our commentary from last year's telecast] more ›

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